As students, we are all excited about the new semester. However, for many students, new beginning means the busy season to buy new clothing, text books, shoes, supplies, fashion items, and cool accessories to survive in the new semester. The National Retail Federation statistic shows students spend an average of $563.49 on school merchandise in 2008, up 6.9% from $527.08 last year.

In reality, its seems we are hard to survive if we only got a part time job which pays $8/hour and text book costs around $100 to $200 at the same time. It is hard to image how many hours we have to do in order to buy just one text book.

There are so many things have to spend, unless you have a rich mom and dad, you must have a hard time since you have an empty wallet which leads student loans, financial aids, or work in campus crucial to those students in dire need for money. If you start to worry about it, we provide some useful suggestions for you:

1. There are several big discount text books websites like bigwords.com or half.com. Here, you can buy discounted textbooks either in new or used condition, DVDs, music, games, and everything. I bought my marketing text books for only $20 from original price $145. But remember, many offers are international version which means those might not include a hard cover, but the content is absolutely the same. That's why you get great deals.

2. Go to scholarship providing site such like fastweb.com. Fastweb.com provides large selections of valid scholarships and financial aids. If you qualify to those criteria, you might get thousands of dollars. Also, the site provides internships and jobs in you local districts. The good thing is you can sign up for free and get start right away.

3. Free education is not a hard thing anymore. Thanks to the Internet, everyone can take free online courses in MIT. MIT Open Courseware is open to everyone who wants to pursue higher education. Courses include sciences, history, mathematics, biology and other 180 courses. But there is no diploma to be provided.

4. Finally, Coupon site is a one-stop place offering discounts items from selected stores up to hundreds leading stores. Coupon sites like Icetab.com targets schools students for discounted textbooks, fashion apparels from head to toe, notebooks, and everything you need at great prices.

There are still many ways to save money, as long as you know it is essential to balance your budget, you can survive your new semester. Enjoy it!